In germany, though it’s a private school so public school times are probably a bit more relaxed.
For lower grades it’s from 8:30 am to 4pm fixed, but higher grades have individual timetables per person, with lessons starting from 7:45 am and some ending at 5 pm. Usually there’s time in between, but at some days not, like wednesday. Often, for 10-12/13th grade, there are also PE courses after school for 1 1/2 h or longer to mitigate a missing hour of PE per week. Also, it’s a school with a focus on sports (Basketball) and music, so many students have courses and activities there after 5 am.
Getting to school is easier for us 18 year olds, with cars and/or motorcycles, but lower grades need to use public transport, so for me it has been a way of over an hour to school, and even longer back if no one was able to pick me up from the train station to the village where I live.
In contrast, a 3 week internship in a bank located in a city over 100 km from where I lived required waking up at 8:50 am for the daily meeting and logging off from the citrix session at 4 pm.
But it’s not really comparable though, is it? I also happen to live in Germany. I work 8 hours, have to pay for my own 30 minute lunch break and have about 3 hours of transport a day, 1,5 hours each way, the days I go into the office. That makes a day of 11,5 hours only spend on work, not counting the hour getting ready before I leave, which I don’t really count as free time. There are no other breaks included in the day. I’m not saying that school isn’t hard, but when I went to e.g university I had a heck of a lot more time to explore my own interests than I do now. When I get home I have to make dinner for the family, empty the dishwasher, do the laundry etc. (and I share these talks with my partner) and I maybe have a good two hours of doing nothing before going to bed on weekdays. I would take school, with all the exams and what not, any day.
